Course Description

This course is an introduction to computational thinking: how we can describe and solve problems using a computer. In the spring 2015 semester we will focus on graphical applications. These applications will motivate how and why we would would want to write procedures, control the flow of information and processes, and organize information for easy access and manipulation. The techniques you learn will be applicable to any kind of programming you may wish to do in the future.

Learning Goals

Students can read a simple program and correctly identify its behavior

Students can convert a problem statement into a working program that solves the problem.

Students understand abstraction and can break down a program into appropriate procedural and object-oriented components

Students can generate an approximate model of computer memory and describe how an algorithm affects its contents.

Students can communicate the result of their work and describe an algorithm

Links to Python Resources

Python.org
-- This is the main source for all documentation on Python. This documentation can be downloaded to your computer so that you don't need web access to view it. Note that we will be using Python 2.7 in lectures and labs.